Honestly love indies, but I can understand people being tired of the abundance in retro looking games and platformers. Which I honestly love, Shovel Knight and 1001 Spikes FTW!! I never understood people calling the all the indies overrated, that doesn't make any sense. Just like great third party games can be overshadowed, great indie games can be overshadowed and missed.

Boss Conquest and Epic Gamers on YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-BdNM7x84aTBodCXQNlOg Also Majora's Mask is the best game ever! Search your feelings you know it to be true!

Everyone is "worried" about Nintendo 3rd party software because Nintendo has created this "thing" where indie work is really awesome..... or BLOWS ...... Nintendo has made it so that for a 3rd Party game to be successful, the company HAS to bring there "A+" big boy pants to succeed or its going to fail. Notice that when a "3rd" party game gets over..... its because its a GOOD game, not just some IP being released to suck up out money...... wait..... how is this different from Sony and Microsoft? It's not.

Why is this a topic........

OR.......
People are critical because there is crap everywhere and Nintendo just has less than the others...... IDK.......

When they charge you 20 euro for something that lasts from 10 minutes to 2 hours there is nothing to laugh about. It actually showcases more greed than with AAA (for which "great" indies stand against... right?).

Of course not all indies, but there are only a few that I really enjoyed

I don't really see "indie" as a genre so I don't understand how you could claim to "hate all indies". Doesn't make sense to me. Kinda like saying you don't like videos on youtube and only enjoy actual shows made for TV. "This youtube thing is stupid, what a waste of time. These people aren't making real content it's all cats and stupid stuffs".

The thing is though that the people making this argument forget that the "higher quality" and "longer form" of the media has the same BS. Also some of the content on the "cheaper" medium is actually more compelling than a lot of the stuff you get with the higher budget. Some people are just plain old talented. And even then on the "higher grade" of content you get trash just the same. Have we not forgotten that Funniest Home Videos is a thing? Or that not that long ago we paid full retail price for Superman 64? Or even not trash, maybe a good game like Geometry Wars in a box, on the shelf for almost full retail. Now it'd be an "indie" title that you buy for ~$15.

Each to their own I guess. I like Shovel Knight, you like CoD, I like Tame Impala and you like Kanye. Whatever, I don't mind, I can still enjoy the stuff I like. But if you hate content purely because of the way it's produced and distributed you're going to miss out. Your loss not mine.
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A very complicated subject, but just reading a handful of comments from the IGN thread brings up some very interesting issues;

Indie games are only for hipsters

I'm sick of Indie games except for Journey

Everything is always 8bit-16bit

People think that because that is how they are covered in the mainstream press. Only certain indie games get the full treatment and it tends to be the ones which are multiplat or the ones which are big budget. The irony being that those indie games are not in the strictest sense Indie at all.

If people i.e the mass market, who are making such comments, truly cared about Indie games, they would get a Steam account and explore the likes of Steam Greenlight or Desura and whatever else, to see that there is a huge world waiting to be explored of genres, prices and lengths. But if you are the mass market you read and believe what is in front of your face, and the ones that can be presented more nicely into the niche are the ones with that oft repeated certain style ie 1001 Spikes, or a certain narrative structure i.e Gone Home. Those are definitive differences with the majority of most console AAA titles these days.

Now, if someone was to cover a game, say called Cloudbuilt, which is not 8-16bit, is PC only, is cheap, and has a graphical style akin to any AA game (Jet Set Radio comes to mind) and certainly not pixel art or dark that stereotypically is the indie thing, whilst also being an experience of a dozen hours or more, then how would that sit with the narrative? It wouldn't because for the most part, Indie games are novelty and elitist, boring, short, the same thing, whatever you want.

Which suits me down to the ground frankly, and having had tet au tete's with just a couple of people on this forum in the past, I couldn't be happier I'm in a different stratosphere to the likes of them.

The reason that most indie games are 8/16bit homages is because one or two people can't do much more than that, and it's better to appeal to your nostalgia than to say "look, we couldn't make the graphics any better, just please buy our game".

My SD Card with the game on it is just as physical as your cartridge with the game on it.
I love Nintendo, that's why I criticize them so harshly.

I don't hate indie games. I just know that they are generally not the type of gaming experience that I look for. But that's not to say that anything is wrong with them; they're just not for me.

My game library ranges from Mario Kart to Call of Duty to Tales of Xillia to Diablo 3 to Forza. To me gaming is about having fun - not blindly supporting only one company while thumbing your nose at "the other guys."

I don't hate indie games, but I do believe Nintendo and Sony's fascination with indies is dangerous...... PC and Smartphones are much better platforms for indies. Indies do not have the problems you associate with PC gaming like requiring the latest graphic card and that all..... Most people own a PC who can run say Shovel Knigh or Fez, but only dedicated pc gamers have a PC which can run the latest AAA games without performance issues.The appeal of consoles is that you get to play AAA games and console exclusives for a reasonable price knowing you are good for the cycle of the console without having to worry about keeping your pc up to date...... If people start really liking all these indy games Nintendo and Sony are pushing so hard and realize they already have a PC who can run them and they are so much cheaper on STEAM then some people may abandon console gaming altoguether

Basically, the way I see it, it's because of trust. For example, I trust Nintendo to make good games most of the time, but I can't trust the indie scene as a whole to make good games always. The problem is seeing the entire indie scene as a whole, which people are doing (not me, but I used to, admittedly), so they don't trust indie games to be good as often as bigger companies. And there's somewhat of a sound reason, but people are too unwilling to try out indies after encountering a few bad games, really.

something I've always wondered what exactly classifies a game as an indie game and not just another third party game?
some indie games have relatively big teams developing them and some "big" developers also make low budget games so where exactly stays the line between indie games and the rest?

goodbyes are a sad part of life but for every end there's a new beggining so one must never stop looking forward to the next dawn
now working at IBM as helpdesk analystmy Backloggerymy Banner made by Dark-Luigi!My Galaxy Bio also by Dark-Luigi!

something I've always wondered what exactly classifies a game as an indie game and not just another third party game?
some indie games have relatively big teams developing them and some "big" developers also make low budget games so where exactly stays the line between indie games and the rest?

Indie normally means the developer is not working with a publisher or self-publishing the title. No matter how big the development team is as long as it is the same company developing and publishing it is indie. So if a Nintendo development team makes a game that Nintendo publishes it is Indie. If Nintendo owns a company that develops the game it is not indie as it is still a different company. It is weird to think about but that is what it is.

something I've always wondered what exactly classifies a game as an indie game and not just another third party game?
some indie games have relatively big teams developing them and some "big" developers also make low budget games so where exactly stays the line between indie games and the rest?

Indie normally means the developer is not working with a publisher or self-publishing the title. No matter how big the development team is as long as it is the same company developing and publishing it is indie. So if a Nintendo development team makes a game that Nintendo publishes it is Indie. If Nintendo owns a company that develops the game it is not indie as it is still a different company. It is weird to think about but that is what it is.

so it's just that!
but it's really crazy how such a simple definition can make things even more confusing when you think about the situation as a whole...

goodbyes are a sad part of life but for every end there's a new beggining so one must never stop looking forward to the next dawn
now working at IBM as helpdesk analystmy Backloggerymy Banner made by Dark-Luigi!My Galaxy Bio also by Dark-Luigi!

"So if a Nintendo development team makes a game that Nintendo publishes it is Indie."

That is not true at all. Nintendo is a major publisher. The definition is whether it is made without the publishers money or influence.

The only corners cases are people like Treasure or Wayforward. (Shantae or Ikaruga are Indie but Smurfs 2 or Wario World are not).

Nintendo is self-publishing if one of their development teams is making it. It does not matter how much money a company has. All that matters is the company in charge of development is also publishing the game for it to be considered Independent, they company is not relying on another to fund or develop the game. Wayforward, Treasure, and Renegade Kid are examples of indie developers that work with publishers at times.